Imaging and Analysis of Neurofilament Transport in Excised Mouse Tibial Nerve

Summary

We describe fluorescence photoactivation methods to analyze the axonal transport of neurofilaments in single myelinated axons of peripheral nerves from transgenic mice that express a photoactivatable neurofilament protein.

Abstract

Neurofilament protein polymers move along axons in the slow component of axonal transport at average speeds of ~0.35-3.5 mm/day. Until recently the study of this movement in situ was only possible using radioisotopic pulse-labeling, which permits analysis of axonal transport in whole nerves with a temporal resolution of days and a spatial resolution of millimeters. To study neurofilament transport in situ with higher temporal and spatial resolution, we developed a hThy1-paGFP-NFM transgenic mouse that expresses neurofilament protein M tagged with photoactivatable GFP in neurons. Here we describe fluorescence photoactivation pulse-escape and pulse-spread methods to analyze neurofilament transport in single myelinated axons of tibial nerves from these mice ex vivo. Isolated nerve segments are maintained on the microscope stage by perfusion with oxygenated saline and imaged by spinning disk confocal fluorescence microscopy. Violet light is used to activate the fluorescence in a short axonal window. The fluorescence in the activated and flanking regions is analyzed over time, permitting the study of neurofilament transport with temporal and spatial resolution on the order of minutes and microns, respectively. Mathematical modeling can be used to extract kinetic parameters of neurofilament transport including the velocity, directional bias and pausing behavior from the resulting data. The pulse-escape and pulse-spread methods can also be adapted to visualize neurofilament transport in other nerves. With the development of additional transgenic mice, these methods could also be used to image and analyze the axonal transport of other cytoskeletal and cytosolic proteins in axons.

Introduction

The axonal transport of neurofilaments was first demonstrated in the 1970s by radioisotopic pulse-labeling¹. This approach has yielded a wealth of information about neurofilament transport in vivo, but it has relatively low spatial and temporal resolution, typically on the order of millimeters and days at best². Moreover, radioisotopic pulse-labeling is an indirect approach that requires the injection and sacrifice of multiple animals to generate a single time course. With the discovery of fluorescent proteins and advances in fluorescence microscopy in the 1990s, it subsequently became possible to image neurofil....

Protocol

All methods described here have been approved by the Institutional Animal Care and Use Committee (IACUC) of The Ohio State University.

1. Preparation of nerve saline solution

1. Make 100 mL of Breuer’s saline¹⁰: 98 mM NaCl, 1 mM KCl, 2 mM KH₂PO₄, 1 mM MgSO₄, 1.5 mM CaCl₂, 5.6% D-glucose, 23.8 mM NaHCO₃ in double-distilled water.
2. Bubble 95% oxygen/5% carbon dioxide (carbogen) through the saline solution for at least 30 minutes prior to use. Leftover saline can be reused within one week; however, it must be reoxygenated before each use.

Results

Figure 3 shows representative images from pulse-escape and pulse-spread experiments. We have published several studies that describe data obtained using the pulse-escape method and our methods for the analysis of those data^5,6,7,8,17. Below, we show how the pulse-spread data can yield information on the directionality and velocity.......

Discussion

Care must be taken in the analysis of pulse-escape and pulse-spread experiments because there is significant potential for the introduction of error during the post-processing, principally during the flat-field correction, image alignment and bleach correction. Flat-field correction is necessary to correct for non-uniformity in the illumination, which results in a fall-off in intensity across the field of view from center to periphery. The extent of non-uniformity is wavelength-dependent and thus, should always be perfor.......

Materials

Name	Company	Catalog Number	Comments
14 x 22 Rectangle Gasket 0.1mm	Bioptechs	1907-1422-100	inner gasket
2-deoxy-D-glucose	Sigma	D6134
30mm Round Gasket w/ Holes	Bioptechs	1907-08-750	outer gasket
35 x 10mm dish	Thermo Fisher	153066	dissection dishes
40mm round coverslips	Bioptechs	40-1313-0319
60mL syringe - Luer-lock tip	BD	309653
Andor Revolution WD spinning-disk confocal system	Andor		outfitted with Perfect Focus and FRAPPA systems
Calcium chloride	Fisher	C79
Coverslips	Fisher	12-541-B	for fluorescein slide
D-(+)-glucose solution	Sigma	G8769
Dissecting pins	Fine Science Tools	26001-70
Dissection forceps	Fine Science Tools	11251-30	fine tipped forceps
Dissection microscope	Zeiss	47 50 03
Dissection pan with wax	Ginsberg Scientific	568859
Dissection scissors	Fine Science Tools	14061-09	initial dissection scissors
FCS2 perfusion chamber	Bioptechs	060319-2-03
Fluorescein sodium	Fluka	46960
Inline solution heater	Warner Instruments	SH27-B
Laminectomy forceps	Fine Science Tools	11223-20	initial dissection forceps
Magnesium sulfate	Sigma-Aldrich	M7506
Microaqueduct slide	Bioptechs	130119-5
Microscope slides	Fisher	12-544-3	for fluorescein slide
Microscope stage insert	Applied Scientific Instrumentation	I-3017
Objective heater system	Okolab		Oko Touch with objective collar
Objective oil - type A	Nikon	discontinued
Plan Apo VC 100x 1.40 NA objective	Nikon	MRD01901
Potassium chloride	Fisher	P217
Potassium phosphate	Sigma-Aldrich	P0662
Sodium bicarbonate	Sigma-Aldrich	S6297
Sodium chloride	Sigma-Aldrich	S7653
Sodium iodoacetate	Sigma-Aldrich	I2512
Syringe pump	Sage Instruments	Model 355
Tubing adapter - female	Small Parts Inc.	1005109
Tubing adapter - male	Small Parts Inc.	1005012
Tygon tubing	Bioptechs		1/16" ID, 1/32" wall thickness
Vannas spring scissors	Fine Science Tools	15018-10	fine scissors